Vending machines are well known for vending articles such as bottled soda and other beverages. Many known prior art vending machines cost in the range of $3,000 to $5,000 and include complicated and costly mechanisms for storing and dispensing bottles.
Known mechanisms in the prior art have been utilized to dispense bottles which are supported in an upright position only at a top portion of the bottle. However, such known prior art mechanisms are both costly and complicated. The known prior art such as the "Neck-Glide" system sold by H & S Beverage Merchandising in Englewood, New Jersey or the "Nektracker" sold by Mead in Atlanta, Ga., require the use of complicated injection molded tracks to support and dispense bottles. In addition, the devices such as sold by Mead and H & S Beverage Merchandising only store and dispense bottles in contrast to the vending machine of the present invention which is operable to store, dispense and vend bottles when coins of a predetermined value are received in the vending machine. Other known mechanisms such as the typical chest type soda vending machines of the 1950's require costly vending and storage mechanisms and thus do not provide a simple low cost apparatus for vending bottles.